December 5, 2005 -- Common Skin Cleanser Used in Head Lice Treatment

In a letter to the editors of the journal Pediatrics, Dr. Dale Pearlman has revealed that the liquid he used in an innovative approach to head lice infestations was in fact a skin cleansing lotion called Cetaphil, commonly available in drug stores at $10 or less a bottle. Dr. Pearlman advised that after application to the scalp, the lotion should be dried with a hair blower, thereby suffocating the lice. The doctor’s findings were published originally in Pediatrics, which did not question him as to the nature of the liquid used in his treatments. Pearlman has since been selling the treatment as “a dry-on suffocation-based peduculocide” on his website at $285. The manufacturers of Cetaphil, Galderma Laboratories LP of Fort Worth, Texas, said the company knew nothing of Pearlman’s use of Cetaphil until learning of his letter to the journal.